The present invention relates to an automatic machine for cutting and pitting fruit, especially peaches, and which includes three fundamental parts or working zones, i.e. (a) a feeding device or zone, (b) an automatic positioning device or zone, and (c) an automatic cutting and pitting device or zone.
The fruit feeding device includes a hopper to which the fruit, conveniently measured, is fed by means such as a suitable lifting element or the like. The hopper is supported on the general frame of the machine by means of flexible dampers and is subjected to the action of a conventional vibrator. The hopper has, at the outlet thereof, as many channels as there are cups or receptacles in each column of the positioning device.
Each one of the channels aligns and supplies the fruit by gravity to other slightly more inclined channels, each of which leads to an upwardly inclined ramp the upper edge of which forms an outlet for the fruit, from which the fruit falls onto one of the cups or receptacles of the positioning device.
This movement of the fruit upwardly along the ramps is achieved by thrust exerted on the fruit by rods activated by a pneumatic piston or by a mechanically operated cam.
The positioning device, which is fed by the mentioned feeding device to convey the fruit to the cutting and pitting zone, is an endless conveyor having means to align the fruit so that the fruit reaches the cutting zone in the suitable position.
The conveyor has a plurality of cups or receptacles for the fruit and is subjected to vibration, so that each of the mentioned cups or receptacles vibrates integrally therewith, thus imparting to the fruit a tendency to rotate or turn.
Each of the cups or receptacles have, at the center of the bottom thereof, a protruding and rounded pivot from which extend in opposite radial directions two flat wings, the purpose of which is to brake further turning of the fruit, in spite of the vibration, when the fruit has reached a position such that the pivot and the wings extend into the cleft of the fruit, specifically the peach, at which the fruit has been joined to the peduncle.
The device to cut and pit the fruit supplied by the positioning device includes a gripping assembly for gripping the fruit from the positioning device and moving the gripped fruit through a circular knife which divides the fruit into two equal parts, and then moving the cut fruit halves through a separator including a pitting knife.
The circular knife cuts the fruit, including the pit, into two parts. The separator has a central plane which is coplanar with the circular knife. The separator has an initial thickness is smaller than that of the circular knife and ends with a thickness which permits housing therein of the single pitting knife.